Use IPv6!the new world is here

Connected using IPv4

54.167.5.113

ec2-54-167-5-113.compute-1.amazonaws.com

What is IPv6?

IPv6 is the next generation of the internet protocol. When IPv4 (the current
standard developped in 1981) came out, they figured that an estimated 4.294 billion
addresses would be enough. It turns out that this internet thing really caught on
and there's actually a shortage of IP addresses. To remedy this situation, there have
been many proposed solutions, but the one that has really caught on with the techs
around the world is IPv6. For someone who doesn't know all that much about networking
or computers, the world of IP can be a scary confusing place. This web site's
aim is to include limited technical information, but include many step-by-step
HOWTOs to set up IPv6 on your computer and network.

Why not just use Network Address Translation (NAT)?

NAT is a fantastic temporary solution, but that is all it really is. The internet is
designed so that computers can communicate directly to each other around the world.
In due time there will be no extra IP addresses and we will be forced to move to IPv6
as the internet protocol. Until that time, computers will be huddled in their own
private networks behind NAT servers and gateways. The down side of this is that your
computer, rather than having complete, unlimited access, incoming and outgoing to the
internet, is being blocked by it's gateway to the internet.

At the present time (Summer 2003) the small office / home office (SOHO) router makers
(LinkSys, D-Link and
Netgear) are not using IPv6. Eventually they
will be forced to. At that time, you'll either be able to upgrade the firmware
on your router if they're nice, or you'll have to buy a new router.
If you want to start to play with IPv6 and you don't have an public IP address (that is
to say, you are stuck behind a NAT gateway or proxy) you will have to use a very newer
access method called teredo.

IPv6 prefix lengths

IPv6 prefix lengths are comparable to the subnets of IPv4, they are much bigger though
because IPv6 is based on a completely different address structure. A /64 is the
address length in the form of:

ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:0000:0000:0000:0000

where the last part of the address will usually look something like:

ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:0200:00ff:fe00:0000

and would be filled in with the MAC address of the network card. For example,
a MAC Address of 00:08:DB:EF:34:33 would result in an IPv6 address like:

ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:0208:dbff:feef:3433

Each part of an IPv6 address with prepending 0s can be omitted, but still represent
the same address. The following are some examples...

ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:0208:dbff:feef:3433

shown as:

ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:208:dbff:feef:3433

One set of repeating zeros in address can be replaced with two colons side by side as well

ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:0000:0000:00a0:feb5

shown as:

ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::a0:feb5

or

ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:0000:0000:4000:0004

shown as:

ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::4000:4

A /64 contains 2^64 nodes or 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 IPv6 addresses. That's
18.446 quintillion for those of you who need to call it something. A /48 contains 65,535 /64s.
The spec for IPv6 states that you'll be routed a /64 for being able to breathe, for all of your
machines/devices behind your router. Your router would be given it's own address out of your
provider's pool for your neighbourhood.

A /48 contains 1,208,907,372,870,555,465,154,560 IPv6 address, which is
1.208 septillion addreses or 65,536 /64s. So, if you were routed dead:beef:cafe::/48 you can create your /64s starting with dead:beef:cafe:0000::/64 and ending with dead:beef:cafe:ffff::/64

A /56 uses the first two bits of the /48 for the network and the second two for you to specify for your /64s.
If you were routed:

dead:beef:cafe:1200::/56

your first available /64 is:

dead:beef:cafe:1200::/64

and your last is:

dead:beef:cafe:12ff::/64

giving you 256 /64s do with to as you please. Providers were originally going to issue /48s but by dividing them into /56s they'll
be able to stretch their address pools further and most users don't have more than 256 networks to deal with so it all works out.

Approximate Number of IPv6 Addresses

Size

Easier to Say

Mask

18,446,744,073,709,551,616

/64

18.466

quintillion

ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::

1,208,907,372,870,555,465,154,560

/48

1.208

septillion

ffff:ffff:ffff::

79,225,744,681,071,852,408,904,089,600

/32

79.225

octillion

ffff:ffff::

5,192,059,177,674,043,847,617,529,511,936,000

/16

5.192

undecillion

ffff::

Getting an IPv6 Address

So you want to get an IPv6 address today, there's a few ways to do it. The first one, and
the best one is if your Internet Service Provider (ISP) supplies them to you. This is
great, because all you have to do now is enable IPv6 on your computer (if it's not already enabled) and you're done.

Most of us don't have that luxury, fortunately there has been a lot of work in creating
a tunneling protocol which allows you to get and use an IPv6 address over your IPv4
connection to the internet. There's a whole lot of documentation about this and how to
use it, so I'd like to go over some of it with you. I've tried this stuff with
Windows XP, FreeBSD 4.8 and RedHat Linux 7.3 so I can give you a little bit of
what I ran into to get where I am today.

The all-around easiest way to connect to get an IPv6 address and a connection is
to use Freenet6 Tunnel Setup Protocol and the best
part is that it's free.

New stuff (2011-02-02)

Stumbled upon this site which I created 8 years ago, a lot of the information is still
quite useful. I've just re-built my IPv6 access and done so using Hurricane Electric's
TunnelBroker.net. Their process has become
very simple, their tunneling is fast (+/-3 ms vs. IPv4 w/o tunnel) and you can set up 5
tunnels with one user name and password. Each tunnel is created with an IPv6 address and
is routed a /64 for the rest of your network automatically. You can also request a /48
which allows you to route out multiple /64s to multiple networks.

IPv4 is on the verge of running out this year so IPv6 is ready to pick up and provide those
18 quitillion addresses to your home. Comcast and other providers have begun limited
trials to launch IPv6 connectivity to their users.